


gently, as a sun rises

by cor_aeterna



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, I wrote this over a year ago and now it finally gets to see the light of day, but cathartic, interpret it how you like, shippy things are in the potential future though, there's no specific ship happening here, this is sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 03:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10982151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cor_aeterna/pseuds/cor_aeterna
Summary: After everything, they travel.





	gently, as a sun rises

After everything, they travel. “We need a pilot,” he says, and she smiles. They take the Falcon and head for the stars, searching for peace, healing.

Sometimes Rey lays her hand on the wall and wonders what what this ship has seen, what memories it holds. She thinks Han would tell them to make some new ones. So they do.

They both want to see everything and everything: she’s only known endless sands and searing heat, and he’s only known orders and blasters and armor.

In battle he becomes tempered steel and determined strength, but as they explore Finn drinks it all in with the wild abandon of the child he never got to be. At first Rey absorbs each new sight with an undercurrent of trepidation, somehow feeling that she’s not allowed to want it all.

What she wants most is to see all the green and water they can find, and every time she pinches herself to be sure it’s not a fantastic illusion shimmering above the desert sand.

The light saber never leaves her side, always a constant weight at her hip.

Finn revels in the freedom to do whatever he wants. The New Order’s collar no longer chokes him, and his newfound joy is infectious. With the ability to make every and any choice for himself, an aching place in his heart begins to heal. He laughs more, smiles more, and brings souvenirs back for Poe at every planet. He brings them for her, too, when he thinks she’s not looking.

He keeps Poe’s jacket.

On a small, lush planet they find a meadow full of wildflowers so quiet and beautiful that Finn cries. He laughs through his tears and says “I’ve never seen anything pretty enough to cry at,” and then she’s laughing until tears stream down her face. They’re both laughing and sobbing and she thinks _how lucky are we to be a alive_.

Rey says “desert scraps” and Finn says “military rations,” and they decide to try something new on every planet they visit. Sometimes it’s delicious, sometimes it’s terrible, and one time Finn hiccups for an hour straight, but they agree this is better than anything they had before.

One night they sit on the tranquil beach of an ocean planet, picking twinkling constellations out of the sky. They take turns until they can’t find anymore, and later Finn picks up a musty old tome in a market that charts the location and name of thousands of constellations. Every night they’re not too tired they pick out a few more.

Rey doesn’t remember what day she was born, and Finn was never told, so they pick birthdays. Finn picks the day he and Poe gunned their way to freedom, the day he had a name, the day he wasn’t a number or another soldier but a person. The day he was free.

Rey picks the day the Force whispered back to her, the day she held her lightsaber and it felt like an old friend in her hands. They day she left the family that abandoned her behind and chose her own.

She stands at the helm of the Falcon as it lingers among the stars, waiting to jump into hyperspace. Finn putters around the cockpit beside her, and an endless universe stretches out before them. Rey feels a warmth fill her heart, like a rising sun.

They’re battered by grief, broken by war, but so’s their beautiful, terrible galaxy, and it’s all right.

**Author's Note:**

> Not counting a dubious Doctor Who oneshot I put on fanfiction.net years ago, this is my first published fic. I've reading fics for a good five years and finally I got off my ass to contribute. Oh god. Bear with me as I figure out how to format things on here. If you so desire, come holler at me about fictional characters and all things literary on tumblr at cor-aeterna.tumblr.com


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